IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/juecon/v144y2024ics0094119024000603.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

JUE Insight: The labor market effects of place-based policies: Evidence from England’s Neighbourhood Renewal Fund

Author

Listed:
  • Calvert Jump, Robert
  • Scavette, Adam

Abstract

Neighbourhood renewal programs are a type of place-based policy that aim to revive underperforming localities. The literature on place-based policies has found mixed results regarding their effects on local labor market outcomes, but there are relatively few studies of policies that aim to improve local labor supply. In this paper we examine the labor market effects of the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, which targeted 88 of the most deprived areas in England during the early 2000s as part of the Labour government’s National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal. The fund disbursed almost £3 billion for spending on community safety, education, healthcare and worklessness, with supply-side interventions making up the bulk of the program’s spending on worklessness. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find statistically significant impacts on local employment. Our results suggest that policy interventions to improve local labor supply can be a successful strategy for neighborhood renewal.

Suggested Citation

  • Calvert Jump, Robert & Scavette, Adam, 2024. "JUE Insight: The labor market effects of place-based policies: Evidence from England’s Neighbourhood Renewal Fund," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juecon:v:144:y:2024:i:c:s0094119024000603
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2024.103690
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119024000603
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jue.2024.103690?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Delgado, Michael S. & Florax, Raymond J.G.M., 2015. "Difference-in-differences techniques for spatial data: Local autocorrelation and spatial interaction," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 123-126.
    2. Ashesh Rambachan & Jonathan Roth, 2023. "A More Credible Approach to Parallel Trends," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(5), pages 2555-2591.
    3. Dmitry Arkhangelsky & Susan Athey & David A. Hirshberg & Guido W. Imbens & Stefan Wager, 2021. "Synthetic Difference-in-Differences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(12), pages 4088-4118, December.
    4. Benjamin Austin & Edward Glaeser & Lawrence Summers, 2018. "Jobs for the Heartland: Place-Based Policies in 21st-Century America," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 49(1 (Spring), pages 151-255.
    5. Steve Fothergill & Donald Houston, 2016. "Are big cities really the motor of UK regional economic growth?," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 9(2), pages 319-334.
    6. Lupton, Ruth & Fenton, Alex & Fitzgerald, Amanda, 2013. "Labour's record on neighbourhood renewal in England: policy, spending and outcomes 1997-2010," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58086, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Lupton, Ruth & Fenton, Alex & Fitzgerald, Amanda, 2013. "Labour's record on neighbourhood renewal in England: policy, spending and outcomes 1997-2010," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 51197, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Alex Fenton & Amanda Fitzgerald & Ruth Lupton, 2013. "Labour's Record on Neighbourhood Renewal in England: Policy, Spending and Outcomes 1997-2010," CASE - Social Policy in a Cold Climate Working Paper 06, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    9. Neumark, David & Simpson, Helen, 2015. "Place-Based Policies," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 1197-1287, Elsevier.
    10. Damian Clarke & Daniel Paila~nir & Susan Athey & Guido Imbens, 2023. "Synthetic Difference In Differences Estimation," Papers 2301.11859, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2023.
    11. Ronán M. Conroy, 2005. "Stings in the tails: Detecting and dealing with censored data," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 5(3), pages 395-404, September.
    12. Chagas, André L.S. & Azzoni, Carlos R. & Almeida, Alexandre N., 2016. "A spatial difference-in-differences analysis of the impact of sugarcane production on respiratory diseases," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 24-36.
    13. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    14. Timothy J. Bartik, 2012. "The Future of State and Local Economic Development Policy: What Research Is Needed," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 545-562, December.
    15. Alonso, José M. & Andrews, Rhys & Jorda, Vanesa, 2019. "Do neighbourhood renewal programs reduce crime rates? Evidence from England," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 51-69.
    16. repec:cep:sticas:/177 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Gutirrez Romero, Roxana, 2009. "Estimating the impact of England's area-based intervention 'New Deal for Communities' on employment," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 323-331, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert Calvert Jump & Adam Scavette, 2022. "The Labor Market Effects of Place-Based Policies: Evidence from England’s Neighbourhood Renewal Fund," Working Paper 22-02, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
    2. Alonso, José M. & Andrews, Rhys & Jorda, Vanesa, 2019. "Do neighbourhood renewal programs reduce crime rates? Evidence from England," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 51-69.
    3. Kishore, Prabhat & Roy, Devesh & Birthal, Pratap S. & Srivastava, Shivendra Kumar, 2024. "Regulation and Policy Response to Groundwater Preservation in India," Policy Papers 345044, ICAR National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NIAP).
    4. Alemán, Christian & Busch, Christopher & Ludwig, Alexander & Santaeulàlia-Llopis, Raül, 2023. "Stage-based identification of policy effects," ICIR Working Paper Series 52/23, Goethe University Frankfurt, International Center for Insurance Regulation (ICIR).
    5. Scavette, Adam, 2023. "The economic impact of a casino monopoly: Evidence from Atlantic City," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    6. Hewitt-Dundas, Nola & Roper, Stephen, 2018. "Innovation in UK higher education: A panel data analysis of undergraduate degree programmes," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 121-138.
    7. Antti Kauhanen, 2024. "The effects of the decentralization of collective bargaining on wages and wage dispersion: Evidence from the Finnish forest and IT industries," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 62(2), pages 319-334, June.
    8. Dench, Daniel & Pineda-Torres, Mayra & Myers, Caitlin, 2024. "The effects of post-Dobbs abortion bans on fertility," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    9. Michael Wasylenko, 2020. "New York State Economic Status of Regions and Development Programs," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 220, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
    10. Jordi J. Teixidó & F. Javier Palencia-González & José M. Labeaga & Xavier Labandeira, 2024. "Carbon Leakage from Fuel Taxes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(12), pages 3235-3270, December.
    11. Jiang, Hongli & Hu, Wenjie & Guo, Ziqing & Hou, Yan & Chen, Tingqiang, 2024. "E-commerce development and carbon emission efficiency: Evidence from 240 cities in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 586-603.
    12. He, Ruofan & Wan, Panbing & Yang, Mian, 2024. "The resource curse in energy-rich regions: Evidence from China's ultra-high voltage transmission," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    13. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Michael Storper, 2020. "Housing, urban growth and inequalities: The limits to deregulation and upzoning in reducing economic and spatial inequality," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(2), pages 223-248, February.
    14. Arne Henningsen & Guy Low & David Wuepper & Tobias Dalhaus & Hugo Storm & Dagim Belay & Stefan Hirsch, 2024. "Estimating Causal Effects with Observational Data: Guidelines for Agricultural and Applied Economists," IFRO Working Paper 2024/03, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    15. Yang Haodong & Liu Jialin & Wang Gaofeng, 2025. "Knowledge Innovation Effect of University Computing Power in China: Evidence from the top500 Supercomputers," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 66(1), pages 1-30, February.
    16. Di, Wenhua & Pattison, Nathaniel, 2023. "Industry Specialization and Small Business Lending," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    17. Robert Messerle & Jonas Schreyögg, 2024. "Country-level effects of diagnosis-related groups: evidence from Germany’s comprehensive reform of hospital payments," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 25(6), pages 1013-1030, August.
    18. Liu, Ruiming & Yan, Haosheng & Zhang, Zebang, 2024. "Does historic preservation affect firms' output? Evidence from the awarding of the Historic City title in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    19. Ben Deaner & Chen-Wei Hsiang & Andrei Zeleneev, 2025. "Inferring Treatment Effects in Large Panels by Uncovering Latent Similarities," Papers 2503.20769, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2025.
    20. Robert Reinhardt, 2024. "Shaking up Foreign Finance: FDI in a Post-Disaster World," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 317-348, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Place-based policies; Urban economics; Labor supply; Employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J48 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Particular Labor Markets; Public Policy
    • R10 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General
    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:juecon:v:144:y:2024:i:c:s0094119024000603. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622905 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.